When someone searches for "plumber near me", the first things they often see are the businesses on the map, each with stars, a phone number and a few photos. Those listings come from Google Business Profiles. They're free, and setting one up properly takes about 15 minutes. Verification can take longer, so start today.
This guide is written for tradespeople who go to their customers rather than having customers come to them. Google calls that a service-area business.
Before you start
Have these to hand:
- A Google account you'll keep, ideally one for the business rather than your personal email.
- Your business name exactly as it appears on your van and invoices.
- Your business phone number, which needs to be able to receive a call or a text.
- The towns or postcodes you cover.
- Your website address, if you have one.
- Five or six good photos of your work, your van and you.
Step 1: Create your profile
Go to google.com/business and choose to add your business. Sign in with the account you'll keep.
Step 2: Use your real business name, and nothing else
Type your business name exactly as customers see it. Don't add your town, your services or a slogan: "Smith Plumbing", not "Smith Plumbing Leeds Emergency Boiler Repairs". Google's guidelines don't allow extra words in the name, and breaking them can get a profile suspended.
Step 3: Choose the right category
Start typing your trade and pick the closest match, such as Plumber, Electrician or Roofing contractor. Google's advice is to use as few categories as possible to describe your core business. Your main category should finish the sentence "This business is a…".
Step 4: Set your service areas, and hide your address
Google will ask whether customers can visit you. If you go to them, say no. Google's guidelines say that if you don't serve customers at your business address, you should remove it from your profile, which is what you want if you work from home.
Then add your service areas: you can set up to 20, by town, city or postcode. Keep them honest. Google says the whole area shouldn't stretch beyond about two hours' drive from where you're based, and you can't set a radius.
Step 5: Add your phone number and website
Use the number you answer on jobs, and add your website if you have one. If you don't, it's worth having one; more on that below.
Step 6: Verify your business
Google needs to check that you're real, and it decides how. Depending on your business, it may ask you to verify by phone or text, by email, on a live video call or by recording a video, or by postcard. Postcards usually arrive within 14 days. After you've completed the steps, Google's review can take up to five working days, and sometimes longer.
If you're asked to record a video, Google wants to see where you are, the equipment you work with and proof that you run the business, such as keys, tools or paperwork. Follow the on-screen steps exactly.
Step 7: Fill in the rest, properly
Once you're verified, finish the profile. It's worth the extra 15 minutes.
- Hours: the hours you answer the phone, and whether you do emergencies.
- Services: list what you actually do, in the words customers use: "boiler service", "fuse board replacement", "flat roof repair".
- Photos: your van, finished jobs and you. Real photos, taken in daylight.
- Description: two or three plain sentences about what you do and where.
Step 8: Ask for reviews the right way
Reviews are the part of your profile customers read most. Google gives you a link you can share. Send it to every happy customer the day you finish the job, while they're pleased. Reply to every review, good or bad, politely and briefly.
Never buy reviews or write your own. Since April 2025, fake reviews have been unlawful under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act, and Google removes reviews and can suspend profiles that break its rules.
Your website and your profile work together
Your profile gets you noticed; your website does the convincing. When a customer taps through from Google, your site should answer every question your profile can't: your prices, your accreditations, your reviews and an easy way to book or ask for a quote.
Setout sites tell Google your name, phone number, address, area and opening hours in the structured format it reads, and put your town in your page title. We build trade websites for £39 a month including VAT, with no contract, and you see yours on your phone before you pay. See what we do for plumbers, electricians, gardeners and decorators, or ask us to build yours.